A pregnancy-phobic nonbinary person and a wannabe optimistic who meets a teenage hitchhiker were at the center of the films highlighting NewFilmmakers Los Angeles’ Infocus: International Animation Program.

The August festival celebrated emerging filmmakers presenting a program of animated work from all around the world, including a selection of California-made short films and a collection of work made in the city of Los Angeles.

The day began with the shorts program InFocus: International Animation, a slate of animated films and stories from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Netherlands and the U.S. The program encompassed a variety of animation styles that capture our imaginations and tell powerful stories.

The afternoon’s programming continued with Made in Los Angeles, offering a close look at the city through a selection of short form storytelling that explored relationship dynamics, cultural identity, staying true to our values, our unhoused neighbors, and grief.

The night concluded with Made In California, a selection of films shot throughout the state, from the wilderness to the city to the suburbs to the desert to the beach. The Californian stories gathered here are full of laughs, pain, perseverance and reverence.

NFMLA showcases films by filmmakers of all backgrounds throughout the year in addition to its special InFocus programming, which celebrates diversity, inclusion, and region. All filmmakers are welcome and encouraged to submit their projects which will be considered for all upcoming NFMLA festivals, regardless of the InFocus programming. 

Also Read: A Beloved Sex-Ed Teacher and a Secret Boyfriend Highlight NFMLA’s InFocus: Counter-Ageism Program

NFMLA InFocus: International Animation

Here is some information on the filmmakers and their films, as well as their video interviews with NFMLA Board Chair Danny De Lillo.

“Navel Gazer” directed by Shirin Mori

About Shirin: Shirin Mori grew up in an atheist-Muslim multigenerational San Francisco household, where as they tried to sleep, they could overhear their grandmother praying to die. A typical day in their childhood included bringing Persian homemade meals from their Iranian grandmother down to the sumo-blaring room of their Okinawan grandmother, and translating messages of care between both grandmothers who spoke very little English. Currently, Shirin is a filmmaker and designer and has worked on protecting our digital civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation for nearly a decade. In their free time, Shirin is negotiating for their union’s first contract. 

About “Navel Gazer”: When a pregnancy-phobic nonbinary person receives a generous check for an egg donation, they find themselves in the crosshairs of a mysterious fertility clinic that only sees them for their idealized healthy body. In world-building for “Navel Gazer”, breath was a guiding word for the team. We wanted viewers to be immersed in Kora’s fear by foregrounding their breaths, where even seeing the color pink feels visceral. 

Watch the NFMLA interview with Shirin Mori the director and writer of “Navel Gazer”:

“Order For Pickup” directed by Jackie! Zhou 

About Jackie!: Jackie! Zhou is non-binary and ageless. They are a Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist, director, and sound designer who is keen on blurring the lines between formats and disciplines. Their recent work includes the short “Order for Pickup,” the music video for Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!”, and developing their first feature, “Rumspringa” as a 2024 TAAF | Sundance Collab scholar.  Every year, they try to compete on one game show, with hopes of one day getting on Jeopardy!. Above all, they believe good listeners make great storytellers.

About “Order For Pickup”: Kelsey’s life is all consumed by work. She neglects friends, family, and herself. She orders meals in for convenience, inhaling each meal just to repeat the work-eat-sleep cycle each day. Her reality blurs until an irregular order for pickup disrupts how she views herself. 

Watch the NFMLA interview with Jackie! Zhou the director and writer of “Order For Pickup”:

“The Three Phases of Isa” directed by Andi Chapman

About Andi: Andi is a Director, Actor and Educator. She also serves as the Associate Artistic Director of the Ebony Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles. Her notable theater directing credits include, THE BLUEST EYE (A Noise Within), BOTH/AND (Boston Court), SHE, THE ABUELAS and NATIVE SON (Antaeus & the Kirk Douglas Theatres – nominated for Best Director by Stage Raw & Broadway World), GOSPEL AT COLONUS (Ebony Repertory Theatre – 14 Ovation nominations including Best Play & Best Play Direction/Best Production at NAACP 2016 Theatre Awards); STEEL MAGNOLIAS (Actor’s Co-op – Best Director Award).

She has also worked as an Assistant Director at Center Theatre Group with Phylicia Rashad on JOE TURNER’S COME & GONE and A RAISIN IN THE SUN (Ovation Award for Best Play). She directed the short films THE THREE PHASES OF ISA and the award-winning MEMORIAL STREET, ELIJAH’S SONG and WHY?

About “The Three Phases of Isa”: A young woman trapped in an abusive marriage confronts her younger selves to gain the freedom she so desperately seeks.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Mildred Marie Langford writer and producer of “The Three Phases of Isa”:

“Flames” directed by Haley (Kai) Elaine Rhéaume 

About Haley: Haley (Kai) Elaine Rhéaume – Jacobson is a recent Concordia University, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (MHSOC) graduate with a Bachelors in Fine Arts, Film Animation extended credit Major. Their passion for the Visual arts has guided them across multiple mediums such as Drawing, Analytical Drawing, Painting, Inter-media, Screen Printing, Lithography, 3D Animation (MAYA), Under-camera Animation, Sound for animation, Animation Post production, and 2D Animation making them a unique multimedia artist with an understanding for a multitude of techniques that can be applied across many forms of Visual Arts and Animation.

About “Flames”: The beauty and destruction of Fire as an element, shown through an analytical, aesthetical, and atmospheric approach. 

Watch the NFMLA interview with Haley (Kai) Elaine Rhéaume director and writer of “Flames”:

“The Ride” directed by Christina YR Lim

About Christina: Lim is a Korean-American writer/director who tells fish-out-of-water, genre-bending AAPI stories. She holds an MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Art. She was a fellow of The Black List & WIF Feature Residency, Yale’s directing lab, Cine Qua Non Lab, and EAVE’s Ties That Bind. Recently, her feature script GYOPO was selected for Wscripted’s Cannes Screenplay List and The Black List x GM incubator fund with which she filmed a proof-of-concept. Her films have screened at Bentonville, Cinequest, and Catalina Film Festival, among others. Her first feature, B-SIDE: FOR TAYLOR, distributed by Buffalo 8 and EST Studios was released in 2024. She will be a fellow of Stowe x Sidewalk’s Story Lab and Reykjavík International Film Festival’s Talent Lab.

About “The Ride”: When wannabe optimist Catherine fatefully picks up a teenage girl hitchhiking on the side of a desolate road, this pragmatist will learn that even on this lonely road, neither of them were ever alone.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Kimberly Truong the writer of “The Ride”:

“Sorry Grandpa Hsiao” directed by Candace Ho 

About Candace: Candace Ho is a Taiwanese American writer-director based in Los Angeles. She received her BA with Honors from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television with a concentration in narrative directing. Her work explores mental health, womanhood, coming of age, and navigating the gray areas of life and identity through a comedic and absurdist lens. Her most recent short, “Sorry Grandpa Haiao”, was one of the ten films created as part of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions and Indeed Rising Voices Season 3, and premiered at 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

Her short films have screened at festivals across the country, including the Oscar-qualifying Austin Film Festival, and Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and have been highlighted in various showcases such as the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts at Northwestern University and in the Asian Americans Media Screening at Pitzer College.

About “Sorry Grandpa Hsiao”: Desperate for a promotion, a Chinese American woman enlists her “perfect” brother to help exploit her grandpa’s death anniversary for her company’s AAPI heritage month social takeover.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Candance Ho the director and writer of “ Sorry Grandpa Hsiao”:

“Echosphere” directed by Vito Pistone

About Vito: Recently graduated with a masters degree in audiovisual arts: animation at RITCS school of arts in Brussels, Belgium. Vito has worked for Walking The Dog and  Mirage Films in Belgium as well as Panebarco in Italy.

About “Echosphere”: A fire ant named Redd ends up separated from her colony inside a huge glass bowl called the Ecosphere. She befriends a group of local bugs who help her get back home, but is that really where she belongs? 

Watch the NFMLA interview with Vito Piston, the director, writer, and producer of “Ecosphere”:

“Strangers Under My Skin” directed by Yifan Xiang

About Yifan: Yifan Xiang, made in Chengdu, Sichuan, is a Los Angeles-based cinematographer, photographer, and director. His journey began in 2014, immersing himself in the world of film. From short films to documentaries, he honed his craft and started by capturing B-roll footage. Upon relocating to Southern California, Yifan directed his own creative projects and contributed his expertise to numerous sets as a cinematographer, colorist, and photographer.

About “Strangers Under My Skin”: An old, blind painter living life alone in his trailer, paints again, after years of blindness.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Yifan Xiang, the director and writer of “Strangers Under My Skin”:

“POP!” directed by Alexandra Hsu

About Alexandra: Alexandra Hsu is a Chinese American director/producer from Orange County. The primary motivation behind her work is to give voice to untold stories that stimulate conversation and help build bridges across cultures. She started making documentaries in college, where she realized her passion for authentic storytelling. Alexandra has directed three short films: Sophie (Hong Kong), Our Way Home (Long Island, New York), and Rencontres Paysannes/Farmers Dating (France). She is now starting the festival run for POP!, her NYU thesis film starring Emmy-nominated actor Michelle Ang, as well as Unwavering, a short she was hired to direct. As part of the inaugural CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge in 2021, Alexandra directed the short film Unread for the non-profit SafeBae.

About “POP!”: “POP!” is a mother-daughter dramedy. “POP” follows the travails of an unemployed, thirty-something Chinese American woman living at home with her mother, as she obsesses over ways to remedy or mask her adult acne in time for a family friend’s Chinese New Year banquet, where she hopes to reunite with an old high school crush.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Alexandra Hsu, the director and producer of “POP!”:

“Comin’ In Hot” directed by Adriana Vecchioli

About Adriana: Adriana Vecchioli is a French-Italian director and a rare combination of fierce and cute. Her work has garnered accolades from SXSW, HollyShorts, and many more. Formerly an engineer, she left a cushy job at Twitter to pursue her obsession for filmmaking and immersive storytelling. Blending cutting-edge technology with artistry, Adriana has designed XR experiences for Warner Bros., Disney, the NBA, Coachella, Snapchat, Google and more. Adriana revels in telling visceral stories of enigmatic women, quiet rage and revolt, subverting expectations with dark humor. She’s written, successfully funded and directed three award-winning short films, all of which she also starred in because, well, she’s a monster.

About “Comin In Hot”: Behind the wheel of a sleek Thunderbird, a bored housewife’s lust for adventure leads her to an unexpected oasis where passion and suds run rampant…

Watch the NFMLA interview with Adriana Vecchioli, the director and writer of “Comin In Hot”:

“Welcome To 8th Street” directed by Yoo Lee

About Yoo: Yoo Lee is a Korean-American writer and director specializing in stop-motion animation. Lee obtained an MFA in Animation and Digital Design from the University of Southern California in 2023. She is a recipient of the 2021 Project Involve Laika Animation Fellowship and the Fox Fellowship in 2022. In 2024, she was chosen as one of 11 directors for the Proof of Concept Accelerator run by Dirty Films, USC Annenberg, and Netflix. Her work can be found on Max and The New Yorker Screening Room.

About “Welcome To 8th Street”: As newcomers attempt to settle into their New Jersey neighborhood on 8th Street, some odd encounters make them question their decision to move.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Yoo Lee the director and writer of “Welcome To 8th Street”:

“Wake” directed by Conner De Mita

About Connor: Conner De Mita is a writer/director from Los Angeles. His work focuses on the eerie and uncomfortable, told through an experimental, genre-driven lens. De Mita is partially deaf, which (somewhat) explains his interest in isolated characters struggling to connect. He graduated from NYU Tisch with a BFA in Film and Television, then received his MFA from the AFI Conservatory as a Directing Fellow. His first short, BROTHER X, competed at the 2019 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. He was a Telluride Film Lab Fellow (2022) and ScreenCraft Finalist with his AFI thesis film, WAKE, currently running the festival circuit.

About “Wake”: After his mother’s wake, Cooper runs away to live alone in the forest, but discovers that every night members of his community inexplicably sleepwalk to him. As more people arrive each night, he’s forced to confront his grief and fear of connection.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Connor De Mita, the director and writer of “Wake”: